The Greatest Moment of Percy Jackson
by mythology-obsessed
Summary: What would happen if CHB recived a strange book from the olympians? The book highlights the greatest moments of the pjo series and looks to the future in the HoO series. Only the best scences are chosen... By the Gods! Hopefully better then the summary. Plz read and review! :)
1. The Story Begins

Percy Pov

With the Titan war was finally over, I thought I'd just be a regular person for once... Well as normal as I can be being a demigod. I at least thought I'd get a little break after everything that happened. Of course, I was wrong.  
At the campfire, the Apollo cabin lead the sing along as usual. The roaring fire in the middle burned a bright yellow. Annabeth slid into a seat next to me and I intertwined my hand with hers. She smiled and gave me a quick peck. After being thrown into a lake yesterday, I feel like a few Aphrodite campers are stalking us because everytime something happens, I can faintly hear a few muffled squeals.  
"Do you hear squeals too? Or is it just me?" Annabeth whispers in my ear in a slightly amused ,slightly creeped out voice.  
I smiled and nodded. " Lets hope they didnt jump after us in the lake". Annabeth smirks and lays her head on my shoulder.  
"S'up lovebirds"  
Annabeth and I turn around to find Nico, Grover and a smirking Thalia walking towards us. Thalia slips into a seat next to Annabeth. "Lady Artemis is letting me relax here for awhile, while shes helping sort thing out on olympus."  
"Great, now we have to deal with Pinecone Face." I loudly whisper to Annabeth.  
" Oh shut up Kelp for Brains." Thalia laughs, lightly punching me in the arm. " Just wait until-" The fire in the pit suddenly glowed bright white. The white flames exploded up into the sky. Most campers close to the fire, scattered back. Apperently Travis and Conner were'nt paying attention and Travis pants caught on fire. He screamed and jumpped into a rose bush.  
"Really Travis, the rose bush?!" Katie screamed at the same time a laughing Conner yelled "Stop drop and roll, bro!"

After I quickly put out the fire and a few Apollo kids helpped heal the burns and scratches from rose thorns. "What the heck happened!" Travis yells, still ticked off from being the only one to get burned.  
"I dont know, but I found this near the fire," Chiron announces, holding up a book."The title is ... The Greatest Moments of... Percy Jackson ." Chiron looks at me questioningly. All I can do is shrug. He examines the book."Theres a summary on the back" Chiron begins reading:

_All the greatest moments of the demigod ,Percy Jackson, personally picked by the Olympians, Hades and Hestia. All from the point of veiw of Percy jackson. Ready to see what the hero of olympus has done that has capured the gods eyes, in the past, present and future.?_

I groan. "Does this mean you guys are gonna read my thoughts?" That is the last thing I need right now. "And what does it mean by future?"  
"Lets read to find out." Malcom says."Can I read , Chiron" He hands the book to Malcom. "Lets see what the gods picked first."

* * *

Thanks for reading. I know the concept might be a little confusing right now. Its basically just excerpts from every book pilled together in one book. im only gonna use a few from each book so if you have a favorite you want me to include be sure to write it in a review.


	2. The Fury

Malcom began reading:

_A heros journey begins. The first monster, marks the age where your life truly starts to become a living hell. Yet some how, you survived to become a hero. A heros life is full of sadness and death, and you, Jackson, are no exception. Your duty to Olympus isn't even close to being over. Your life will still be full of pain and sorrow. You have been warned._

_~ Hera_

Theres a heavy silence in the air. I cant belive I actually thought it was over. Annabeth squezes my hand reasuringly. I dont look at her. Im to lost in thought. "Well that was depressing" Nico says trying to break the silence.  
"We'll talk about it after," Chiron says "Right now lets just read the story." Malcom took his cue and began reading:

_The Fury_

I groan yet again. Its bad enough I went through this once now I have to live through it again.

_I was about to unwrap my sandwich..._

"A very dramatic way to start a story Percy. You should win a prize." Thalia mocks.  
"Oh shut up." I laugh along with a few other campers.

_when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends- I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from tourists- and dumped her half eaten lunch in Grover's lap._

"That was disgusting" Grover muttered. "who eats peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches anyway?" Nico makes fake gaging noises picturing the sandwhich.

_"Opps" She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if someone had spray-painted her face with liquid cheetos._

A grumbling noise filled the pavillion, coming directly from Conner "What?" he asks in defence."You cant make Cheetos sound unappitizing! No matter how gross description was."

_I tried to stay cool..._

"You were never cool"  
"Are you gonna do this all day, Thalia?"  
"Yup" she says popping the P.

_The student counselor had told me a million time,"count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad, my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears._

"That counselor should get a promotion"

_I dont remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"_

"That was hilarious" Grover said, remembering the past." Except for ..."

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

"...When Mrs. Dodds appeared. That ruined the fun." Grover groaned.

_Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"_

_"—the water—"_

_"—like it grabbed her—"_

_I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again._

"They practicaly saw your freaky water powers and that is seriousy all you think about" Nico says teasingly.

_As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. _

_"Now, honey—" _

_"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks._

_That wasn't the right thing to say. _

"No duh Barnicle Breath."

_"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said._

_"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."_

I smile at Grover. "Thanks," I whisper to him "for trying to help."

"Would have been better if it worked." He responds

_I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. _

_She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled._

_"_Did not." Grover muttered

_"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said._

_"But—"_

_"You—will—stay—here."_

_Grover looked at me desperately._

_"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."_

_"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."_

"Why does she keep saying honey?" Nico asks." Its getting kinda creepy...and alittle familar."

_Nancy Bobofit smirked._

_I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. _

"I would hate to be at the reciving end of that." Annabeth says and , and to my surprise, almost the whole camp agrees. Am I really that intimidating? Sweet!

_Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on._

_How'd she get there so fast?_

"Well Percy-"

"Dont even, Nico"

_I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. _

"That counselor is just all types of helpful." Thalia says in an all-to-serious voice.

_I wasn't so sure._

_I went after Mrs. Dodds._

_Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel._

All eyes glance at Chiron. "What?" He asks in an innocent voice.  
"What we're you reading that kept you from noticing?"  
"Umm..." Chiron face turns red. "We should... finish this chapter... before cerfew."  
Grover suddenly laughs "I remember! it was-"  
"Lets continue reading everyone!" Chiron stammers. Malcom starts reading again. Grover coughs something that sounds suspicously like 'twilight'.

_I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall._

_Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan._

_I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. _

_Except for us, the gallery was empty._

_Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling._

_Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with at teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the was she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it..._

"Thats pleasent." Annabeth mumbles

_"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said._

_I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."_

"at least we know your brain isnt completly full of kelp."

_She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" _

_The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil._

_She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me._

"Worst law ever made" Dinoyus sighs

_I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."_

_Thunder shook the building. _

_"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."_

_I didn't know what she was talking about._

_All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. _

" Yeah thats why she wants to kill you. Sugar rotting your teeth is much worse then being acused of stealing the most powerful weapon ever invented."

_Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. _

Malcom stopped reading suddenly. "Whats so bad about reading that book? Its a classic!"

_"Well?" she demanded._

_"Ma'am, I don't…"_

_"Your time is up," she hissed._

_Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons._

" Your very first monster is a werewolf!" Connor exclaims.  
"Umm... No... wait werewolves dont even have wings!" .  
"You dont know that!" he huffs

_Then things got even stranger._

_Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand._

_"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.  
_  
Thalia snorts. "Really Chiron.'What ho'. what does that even mean?"

_Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. _

_With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day._

_Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes._

_My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword._

_She snarled, "Die, honey!"_

_And she flew straight at me._

Theres a silence in the air. Not a single noise except the crackling of the hearth. everyone waited with baded breath.

_Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword._

" Naturally? Are you serious?" Rachel asks

_The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!_

_Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me._

I shutter involentary, remembering those illuminating bright red eyes.

_I was alone._

_There was a ballpoint pen in my hand._

_Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me._

"Way to be dramatic Seaweed Brain." Annabeth say lifting her head off my shoulder.  
"Thats it for this part." Malcom annonces. "Who wants to read next?'  
"I will." Nico says. He hands him the book and Nico looks at the page. "Sweet! Its in Greek!" And with that, He begins reading.

* * *

Any part you want added? Well then just put it in your helpful reveiws :) anyway Thanks for reading!


	3. The Minotaur

Nico began reading:

_I'll never understand how you did it, but it was amazing. Your thoughts were only on avenging your mother. Anger coursed through your veins and that causes incredible power needed to defeat your enemy bare handed. Just beware that anger also makes people lose there judgment. No matter what anger you face in the future, just remember to not let it control you. I could mean the end of everything you know._

_~ Demeter_

Again another heavy silence covers the Pavillion like a blanket of fog. "Way to go Katie!," Travis suddenly shouts causing everyone to jump. "Your Mom just had to go and depress us again."  
I some times think Travis has a serious death wish.  
"Shall we continue?" Katie says cheerfully after 10 minutes. Nico begins reading again while Travis struggles to free him self from vines wrappped around his whole body.

_The Minotaur_

Annabeth must feel me stiffen at the title, because she squeezes my hand whispers reasuring words in my ear. It doesnt make me feel any better. I faced the minotaur twice and just thinking about fighting it again scares me to the core. Theres just something about the first monster you face,( that you actaully know is monster straight out of greek myths,) that haunts you for life. I thought the Fury was some type of deformed chicken at first, not one of the three furies!

_There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded._

"Thats a way to start a story."Thalia smirks " but what exactly is happening?"

_I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time._

"Not fun" I mutter.

_I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."_

_"Percy!" my mom shouted._

_"I'm okay..."_

_I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in._

_Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"_

" Stupid Dad" Thalia exclaims. Thunder booms in the distance.

_He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!_

Grover smiles, then it slowly turns into a frown."Whats so wrong about being 'half barnyard animal'?" He bleats

_Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope._

The camp laughs while Grover turns a bright shade of read.

_"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered._

_I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns._

The whole camp was silent. So many had heard about the Minotaur incident. Now they will finally know what happened from my point of view. Just great.

_I swallowed hard. "Who is—"_

_"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."_

_My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking._

_"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"_

"Hey!" Thalia yells "I was a perfectly normal sized tree! I was not 'big'!"

_"What?"_

_Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill._

Thalia glares. "A huge... Christmas tree-sized... Oh Im gonna kill you. Not now but soon when you dont expect it"

_"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."_

"Like you would ever leave her or anyone for that matter, behind."

_"Mom, you're coming too."_

_Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean._

_"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."_

_"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder._

"way to convince her G-Man"

_The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …_

_"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."_

_"But..."_

_"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."_

_I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat,_

"Grover the goat... Thalia can I join in on the killing Percy thing?"

_at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull._

"A minotaur usually walks like a bull. If it didnt, that would be weird."

_I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."_

_"I told you—"_

_"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid._

_Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass._

_Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear_

_I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny,_

"Well, that... thats just plain disturbing."

_except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders._

"Ewww.'

_His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener._

_I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real._

"Dont say the name! Names have powers." Thalia says smacking my head

"Who said I even said the name?" I say rubbing the back of my freshly smacked head.

_I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"_

Thalia smirks at me.

_"Pasiphae's son," my mother said._

I stick my tounge out.

_"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."_

_"But he's the Min—"_

Thalia smirks again.

_"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."_

Thalia frowns. "How does she even know that?"

_The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least._

_I glanced behind me again._

_The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away._

_"Food?" Grover moaned._

"Can you say anything other then 'food'?"

"Nope"

_"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"_

_"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."_

_As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro_

_"_Gabe?"

"My disgusting step father." I say, then I explain why my mom married him, and why we had his car. Just talking about him still makes me angry, but when I think of what happened to him, I cant help but smile.

_by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded._

_Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying._

_Oops._

"Your about to die and this is what you think about?" Nico says trying to hold in his laughter.

_"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"_

"Your mom is very smart... why arent you?" Thalia mocks

_"How do you know all this?"_

_"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."_

_"Keeping me near you? But—"_

_Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill._

_He'd smelled us._

_The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."_

_I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat._

_He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest._

The fire is burning so bright its almost white. No one dares to say a word.

_The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing._

_So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side._

_The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass._

A few people gasp. Annabeth, realizing what is to come, hugs me tight and I put an arm around her sholder.

_We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it._

_The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eying my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover._

_"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"_

_But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air._

My heart skips a beat. Why do I have to re-live this?

_"Mom!"_

_She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"_

_Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone._

Some people had tears in there eyes. Some people were questioning why she dissapered into light. I Was just... there... not daring to speak from fear it would turn into a sob.

_"No!"_

_Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons._

I guess thats what Demeter ment about anger. It really does take control. Truth is, I dont even remember what happened after my mom dissapered. I just remember crying as I dragged Grover to the big house.

_The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too._

_I couldn't allow that._

"Of course you wouldnt." Annabeth says with a proud smile.

_I stripped off my red rain jacket._

_"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"_

"We really need to help you with your insults,dude." connor says still trying to free travis from his vine prison.

_"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists._

_I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all._

_I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment._

_But it didn't happen like that._

"Do any of your plans work the way you want them to?"

"Not that Ive seen."

_The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge._

_Time slowed down._

The campers tensed. Everyone was waiting for this moment.

_My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck._

_How did I do that?_

Everyone was in silence wondering how the hades a demigod with no training could possibly do that.

_I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out._

_The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils._

"Why are you so descriptive with disgusting stuff!"

_The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward._

_Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off._

_"Food!" Grover moaned._

Grover blushed again.

_The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!_

"Dont tell me you just..." Thalia says surprised

_The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife._

_The monster charged._

_Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage._

_The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart._

_The monster was gone._

Silence. Then the campers started cheering. Nico had to shout in order for people to hear him read.

_The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. _

The cheering stopped. With the minotaur being defeated, they must have completly forgotten about my mother.

_I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go._

"I should have done more." Grover says just loud enough for me to hear. "All I did was annoy you."

"Hey," I whisper back. "You did the best you could. I could have lived with out the 'food' groans but you did great."

_The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's._

Annabeth and I blushed. That is yet another down fall of reading this book in front of the whole camp.

_They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be." _

A few campers laugh. Okay not a few. Basically the whole camp. If its possible to blush even redder, we did. "I told you!" an Aphrodite camper says to her sisters." They liked each other from the beggining!"

_"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."_

"Thats it." Nico says trying to supress his laughter. "whos reading next?"

"I'll do it." Clarisse says. probly hoping the next chapter will embaress me further.

She begins reading

* * *

Thanks for reading! make sure to tell me some of your favorite sences. Im definitly doing some of the ones people have reveiwed. And sorry for the bad spelling/grammer errors!


	4. Toliet Water

Clarisse began reading:

_I Have a really IMPORTANT reason for adding this chapter to the book... It was hilarious! Your not at camp for five mintues before pissing off your first camper! Hestia is telling me I need to have a moral (whatever that is) for this story to make it pass editing. Apperently the fates are editting our very important book to you. So the summary is kinda wrong when it says "Chosen by the gods" It should really be "Select stories chosen by the gods, who are being forced to do this by the fates, who are control freaks"  
Anyways the moral is (*drumroll*) Pissing people off is hilarious._

BYE and I might see you sooner then you think. ;)

_~ Hermes_

_P.S In this book im gonna add what happens when I see you next time :P so be prepared for awsomely amazing fantasticness!_

By the end of the note the whole camp erupted in laughter. In between fits of laughter Chiron is able to quiet everyone down enough to keep reading.

_**Toliet Water**_

Clarisse become pale reading that one sentence.

_**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**_

Some people turned towards Clarisse. She happened to be wearing the same outfit. "It doesnt mean its me!"

_**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. **_

Some brave campers laughed. They wouldnt last the night, judging by the look on Clarisse's face.

_**"Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**_

_**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**_

_**''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded.**_

"Who knew you were violent,"Connor muttered sarcastically.

_**"You don't stand a chance."**_

_**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**_

_**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**_

_**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**_

"No, the god of waffles," Thalia mocks  
"I wouldnt hate him if he was."  
"Oh shut up," She replies playfully punching my arm.

_**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**_

_**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**_

_**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**_

_**"Percy."**_

_**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**_

_**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**_

_**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**_

Annabeth looks at me questioningly. "Is that how you got that nickname?"  
My face turns as red as a strawberry as I say the most intellegent thing I could think. "I ugggggggggggggggggg?"  
"...Umm are you okay?"  
"I dont know..."

_**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it,**_

_**and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**_

_**I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**_

"Very heroic Percy," Thalia sounds unnormally serious, "Willing to beat up a girl to impress Annie."

This sets off a round of laughter.

_**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**_

_._"Yeah we should really fix that." Annabeth says looking at chiron expectingly

_**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**_

_**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**_

I laugh at the irony. Some people look at me like im crazy, laughing at an insult to myself.

_**Her friends snickered.**_

_**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**_

"Thanks for helping." I mutter

_**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**_

_**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**_

Clarisse blushes red with anger while the whole camp laughs

_**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.**_

_**The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**_

Clarisse reads with such anger in her voice, that I think see might explode.

_**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**_

_**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**_

_**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared**__._

"That ain't gonna impress Annabeth like that." Nico sputters in a horrible country accsent.  
"Why are you talking like?"  
"Cuz I's cools like that."

_**She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock. I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**_

"Perks of being a son of posidon." I gloat.  
You know what? that could be an excellent title for a book. I tell my self to remember that for later.

_**I stood up, my legs shaky.**_

_**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**_

_**"I don't know."**_

_**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**_

_**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**_

"Umm yeah, we got to work on your insults dude." Travis and Connor say once again.

_**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**_

_**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her. **_

"Did it ever occur to you that litte Annie might have been checking you out." Thalia smirks.  
"Stop calling me Annie!"

_**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**_

_**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**_

"Ohh. Foreshadowing."Nico exclaims. "whose reading next"

"I will." Rachel says.

She began reading.

* * *

Thanks for reading please read and review! :)  
I have afew questions to ask you anyone who read this authors note:

1. Should I keep adding the stories in the same order as the series or just do it in any order?

2. Should I add anymore characters? Like HoO characters?

3. And should I start making a trivia question at the end of the chapter? Like 'What color is rachels hair?' something like that but more challenging.

Again, thanks for reading!


	5. Capture the flag

Rachel began reading:  
_  
Your first capture the flag. I know after I clamied you, you felt like an outcast. Know one wanted to even talk to you except a few friends. Im sorry. Zeus was angry at me, thinking you stole the bolt and I claimed you for selfish reasons. I guess what Im trying to say is that, no matter what you do in the future, Never do anything you'll regret. I dont regret claiming you, but I regret the reasoning behind it.  
~Posidon_

There it is again. Why does every god keep bringing up my future? Does it have to do with the prophcy Rachel said? As these thoughts race through my head, Rachel starts reading again.

_Capture the Flag_

_**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**_

_**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**_

_**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**_

_**She kept marching.**_

"Oooh rejection." surprisingly Grover said that.

_**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**_

_**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**_

I look at Annabeth questioningly. "I thought you were a Hermes kid!"  
"I wish,"Travis mutters "Then we'd win every capture the flag game."

_**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**_

Annabeth stiffens at the mention of Luke, so does most the camp. I can still remember how nice he was to me when I first showed up, even then he hated his father for never speaking to him. At least one of us had to think he might be turning evil. Sadly, it wasnt me. Rachel keeps reading to break the heavy silence that filled the Pavillion.

_**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**_

_**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. **_

"Athena always has a plan." Me and Thalia mutter. We both laugh at Annabeths expression.  
"I dont say that all the time!"

_**Athena always has a plan."**_

Now its Annabeths time to blush.

_**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**_

_**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**_

Annabeth lifts her head from my shoulder And whispers "sorry" into my ear.

_**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**_

"You just happen to be right next to water?"

_**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**_

_**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**_

_**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**_

"Yay im mentioned!" Will shouts

_**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**_

"Yeah right" Nico exclaims." The fun always comes to you"

_**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**_

_**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling some thing was stalking me.**_

_**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**_

"The Hellhound!" Annabeths head suddenly snaps up"You relized something was there and didnt tell anyone!"

"I didnt really have time to think about it"

_**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**_

_**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**_

The entire Ares cabin starts cheering, except for Clarisse. She turns a firey shade of red.

_**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**_

"Pig eyes?!" Clarisse shouts. "What is this make fun of Clarisse day?"  
"No thats next week." Connor replies.

_**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**_

_**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur. **_

_**They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**_

_**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. **_

" The key word in that sentence is 'was' electric" Annabeth whispers to me. Apperently she saw what happens to that spear when she was watching.

_**I fell back.**_

_**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**_

_**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**_

_**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**_

"Annabeth wouldnt like that." Thalia smirks

_**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**_

_**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**_

_**"The flag is that way," I told her. **_

"Nice Percy, They didnt even ask where it was and you just told them !" Travis says" Thats like telling a cop you just robbed a bank, when he just wanted to know where the nearest doughnut shop was."

Every one stares at Travis weirdly.

_**I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**_

_**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**_

_**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**_

_**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, **_

"There as good as dead." Grover mutters

_**tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. **_

_**As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**_

_**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**_

_**"No maiming," I managed to say.**_

_**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."**_

"really" Rachel asks in disbelief. "Thats the only punishment."

_**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**_

_**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**_

Clarisse looked like she wanted to be any where but here. She apperently knew what was gonna happen.

_**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**_

The whole camp (Excluding Ares cabin) either cheers or laughs. I guess thats one up side to reding this book.

_**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**_

_**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**_

"Hey! thats Nicos nickname!"  
"Yeah!" Nico agrees. Then he relizes what he just said. "Wait... Hey!"

_**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**_

_**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. **_

_**The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**_

_**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**_

_**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**_

_**The game was over. We'd won.**_

_**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**_

_**I looked, but she wasn't there.**_

_**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**_

"You were seriously there the whole time." Nico laughs. " well if you wanted to stare at Percy , I guess using a invisiblity hat is the best way."  
"I wonder how many times shes done that?" Thalia adds. Annabeth and I both blush, while Thalia and Nico high five each other.

_**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**_

_**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**_

Thalia stares at Annabeth trying to prove a point. "This time I said it with two 'always'."Annabeth defends her self. "It's not exactly the same."

_**"A plan to get me pulverized."**_

_**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**_

_**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**_

_**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**_

_**"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."**_

_**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**_

"Water heals you?" Thalia asks me, then she turns to Nico. "Does death heal you?"  
"No. Does lightning heal you?"  
"Touche"

_**"I—I don't get it," I said.**_

_**Annabeth was thinking hard.**_

_**I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**_

_**"What—"**_

_**"Just do it."**_

_**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**_

_**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..."**_

Thunder rumbled through the sky. "Really Dad?!" Thalia shouts at the sky.

_**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**_

_**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"**_

_**Annabeth drew her sword.**_

_**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**_

"Thats a new way to think of it." Nico says.

_**It was looking straight at me.**_

"Of course it was."

_**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**_

_**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**_

_**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**_

_**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**_

_**"Di immortales!"**__**Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."**_

_**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**_

_**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**_

Thalia sighs. she seems to be in deep thought. She doesnt know everything Luke did before she was turned back into a human. I guess she feels sorry for him that his 'moment of glory' vanished, before it started.

_**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**_

"Yeah Clarisse, Percy summoned it to attack himself." Thalia scoffed, coming out of her thoughts.

_**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**_

_**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**_

_**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**_

_**"I'm okay."**_

_**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**_

_**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**_

_**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**_

_**"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."**_

_**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**_

_**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**_

_**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**_

_**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."**_

_**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**_

_**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**_

_**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**_

"You seriously couldnt figure it out."

_**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**_

"Thats it" Rachel says "Who wants to-"  
She cut off by enormous flash of lightning that strikes down in the center of the pavillion. Right in the fire pit. The fire expands to the height of a skyscraper. It's billowing flames dance through the air. surprisingly the flames aren't hot. Its like they became a holographic projection. The flames are so bright, I have to look away. Suddenly the fire returns to its orignal size. As my eyes adjust to the newly dim enviroment, I can barely make out the shape of a person collapsing to the ground.

* * *

The first new person is being added to the story! Sorry , but I just had to do a cliff hanger. Anyways on my profile is a poll. The poll is "Who should be added to the story first" If you want to vote for who you think should make this very dramatic entrance. The poll closes in a few days so be sure to do it soon! Thanks for reading and please review!

Question of the Chapter time!

What was the name of the hunter that was supposed to go on the quest in the Titans Curse, but got bed ridden because of the Stolls prank?


	6. 1st New Character! Claiming

Congrats to THeReeDeR9295 who guessed Pheobe was the name of the Huntress first! The poll results came in and tied for second place was Hazel and Renya! I didnt really expect that. The new person being added to the story is...

* * *

The fire was barley burning now. Only a few embers were still lit. In the dim light of the camp fire I could see chiron running over to the fallen person. Annabeth and I quickly got to our feet and ran over to Chiron. "Medic!" He cried as he held the person limply in his arms. A few Apollo kids rushed over and tentively gave the person some ambrosia. Since the stranger didnt burn to a crisp, he must have been a demigod.  
Suddenly his eyes began to open. His curly black hair and elfish features made him look like... well an elf. He looked around with wide eyes and got unsteadly to his feet. His head scans every inch of the camp before resting on Annabeth and I. "How... how are.." The boy sputters in a weak voice.  
"You need rest," Chiron tells him before gesturing for him to sit. He sits but never takes his eyes off us. I dont know weather to be falttered or creeped out. "What is your name?"  
The boy stares at Chiron in disbelief, like he cant belive he just asked that. "Leo, Leo Veldez." He answers. "What year is this?"  
A few campers laugh. "Must've hit his head pretty hard." someone mutters.  
"Im serious! How come theres not alot of campers? Why does everyone look younger? How come that kids on fire!?" He shouts point at a unsuspecting Travis, who like Leo said, is on fire. Again.  
"Oh come on!" Travis yells as he runs to the canoe lake as fast as his burning legs can take him.  
"Umm Guys?" Rachel asks holding the book. "I think we should read this next part. It explains everything." Annabeth grabs the book and begins reading:

_Your all probly wondering who the strange new kid is in your camp. Well I'll have to explain that now won't I? This book doesnt just show th past, it shows the future as well. So we figured "Why not bring people from the future to the past as well?". And thats why Leo is there. He's sort of like our test monkey (no offense) , to see how you will react. Oh and Leo? Make sure you dont say anything important about the future. If you do a whole bunch of Doctor Who related stuff will happen and you time period will cease to excist. No pressure.  
Anywho this chapter is your first look to the future and it doesnt reveal much. Only the funniest claiming ever. And Percy, good luck dude, your gonna need it where your heading._

_~Apollo_

" Well... That was helpful and annoying." I say. Why cant gods just tell you whats gonna happen. Why do they have to keep putting in suttle clues. I look over at Leo. He's still looking at me like he's seen my funeral. "Let just get this reading over with."  
"Why do we have to read? They couldnt have just made a movie?" Leo practically shouts. I dont know who this guy is, but Im starting to like him. Rolling her eyes, Annabeth starts reading.  
_Claiming_  
_**"The lake!" Annabeth yelled. "Aim for the lake!"**_

_**"**_So Im guessing Im in this," Annabeth says glancing at Leo. He only nods. From the looks of him, I can tell he just wants to blurt everything about the future out.

_**Piper remembered something her dad had once told her, about hitting water from up high being as bad as hitting cement.**_

Before Nico can ask Leo answers his unasked question. "Shes another demigod that is a definitly part of Team Leo." He smirks as he felxes his triceps, which are about as skinny as a twig.

_**And then— BOOM .**_

BOOM! In the distance is a loud booming sound. Then the canoe lake erupts and Travis is thrown in the center of the pavillion. "Naiads...apparently...dont like... fire" He gasps in between deep breathes. I probly should have warned him about that.

_**The biggest shock was the cold. She was underwater, so disoriented that she didn't know which way was up.**_

_**She just had time to think: This would be a stupid way to die. Then faces appeared in the green murk—girls with long black hair and glowing yellow eyes. They smiled at her, grabbed her shoulders, and hauled her up.**_

Travis shuttered at the description of his attackers.

_**They tossed her, gasping and shivering, onto the shore. Nearby, Butch stood in the lake, cutting the wrecked harnesses off the pegasi. **_

As we all wonder who Butch is, Leo mutters "Rainbows and Ponies." Maybe he did hit his head after all.

_**Fortunately, the horses looked okay, but they were flapping their wings and splashing water everywhere.**_

_**Jason, Leo, and Annabeth were already on shore, surrounded by kids giving them blankets and asking questions. Somebody took Piper by the arms and helped her stand. Apparently kids fell into the lake a lot,**_

"Not really," Thalia says. "Most are thrown in." Annabeth and I blush. Leo must've seen this and he just had to respond.  
"Wow you two just get awkworder over the years, dont you?"  
Thalia laughs. "What do these love birds do in the future? I need more blackmail."  
Leo smirks. "Maybe I'll tell you, sometime when we're alone." He wiggles his eyebrows suggestivly. I cant keep myself from cracking up laughing. Niether can Annabeth and Nico. Thalia looks horrified. Either Leo is seriouly ADHD or he just wants to get hit by lightning.  
Thalia unclasps her knife and starts playing with the point.  
"Im sorry, what did you say."She asks grabbing the hilt of the knife. Leo gulps and doesnt say a word. "I thought so." Smirking , Thalia puts her knife away.  
Annabeth starts reading again and I faintly hear Leo mutter "Rejected twice by the same girl. A new personal low for team Leo."

_**because a detail of campers ran up with big bronze leaf blower–looking things and blasted Piper with hot air; and in about two seconds her clothes were dry.**_

_**There were at least twenty campers milling around—the youngest maybe nine, the oldest college age, eighteen or nineteen—and all of them had orange T-shirts like Annabeth's. Piper looked back at the water and saw those strange girls just below the surface, their hair floating in the current. They waved like, toodle-oo , and disappeared into the depths. A second later the wreckage of the chariot was tossed from the lake and landed nearby with a wet crunch.**_

_**"Annabeth!" A guy with a bow and quiver on his back pushed through the crowd. "I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!"**_

_**"Will, I'm sorry," Annabeth sighed. "I'll get it fixed, I promise."**_

"Aww you broke my chariot!"

_**Will scowled at his broken chariot. Then he sized up Piper, Leo, and Jason. "These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven't they been claimed already?"**_

_**"Claimed?" Leo asked.**_

_**Before Annabeth could explain, Will said, "Any sign of Percy?"**_

Annabeths voice quivered. The camp tensed. Is this what the gods ment? I go missing in the future?

_**"No," Annabeth admitted.**_

_**The campers muttered. Piper had no idea who this guy Percy was, but his disappearance seemed to be a big deal.**_

Silence. Annabeths hands shake. I try to comfort her, but it doesnt help. Suddenly Annabeth punches my chest. The curse of Achillies just made it worse for her. As soon as she punches me her hand recoiles in pain. She curses in Ancient Greek before shouting."Where have you gone now!"  
Before she tries to kill me Leo steps in."It's not his fault, a... certain goddess took him and replaced him with Jason whos-" He cuts himself off not wanting to say more. He gestures with one hand for Annabeth to keep reading, while the other hand covers his mouth.

_**Another girl stepped forward—tall, Asian, dark hair in ringlets, plenty of jewelry, and perfect makeup.**_

_**Somehow she managed to make jeans and an orange T-shirt look glamorous. She glanced at Leo, fixed her eyes on Jason like he might be worthy of her attention, then curled her lip at Piper as if she were a week-old burrito that had just been pulled out of a Dumpster. Piper knew this girl's type. She'd dealt with a lot of girls like this at Wilderness School and every other stupid school her father had sent her to. Piper knew instantly they were going to be enemies.**_

_**"Well," the girl said, "I hope they're worth the trouble."**_

"Stupid Drew." An Aphrodite camper mutters before being smacked in the back of the head by, nonother then, Drew herself.

_**Leo snorted. "Gee, thanks. What are we, your new pets?"**_

_**"No kidding," Jason said. "How about some answers before you start judging us—like, what is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?"**_

_**Piper had the same questions, but a wave of anxiety washed over her. Worth the trouble. If they only knew about her dream. They had no idea…**_

Leo sighs. "Her dream was creepy."

_**"Jason," Annabeth said, "I promise we'll answer your questions. And Drew,"—she frowned at the glamour girl—"all demigods are worth saving. But I'll admit, the trip didn't accomplish what I hoped."**_

_**"Hey," Piper said, "we didn't ask to be brought here."**_

_**Drew sniffed. "And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?"**_

_**Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth said, "Piper, stop."**_

"Why Annabeth!? Drew could have got smacked!" Nico whinnes. Annabeth just keep reading with a vacant expression, which is very unike the normal annabeth, that is alway calculating something.

_**Piper did. She wasn't a bit scared of Drew, but Annabeth didn't seem like somebody she wanted for an enemy.**_

"you got that right" Connor mutters, probly thinking about the last time he got on her nerves. annabeth either didnt hear or care, she just kept reading with no emotion in her voice at all.

_**"We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome," Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew. "We'll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they'll be claimed."**_

_**"Would somebody tell me what claimed means?" Piper asked.**_

_**Suddenly there was a collective gasp. The campers backed away. At first Piper thought she'd done something wrong. Then she realized their faces were bathed in a strange red light, as if someone had lit a torch behind her. She turned and almost forgot how to breathe.**_

_**Floating over Leo's head was a blazing holographic image —a fiery hammer.**_

"Hephaestus!" Leo shout. Suddenly his hands burst into falmes. I feel a clench in my gut as I command the water to drench him. "Dude! Not cool. Well the water is freezing but it's still not cool!"  
The Hephaestus cabin share a few worried nods as Annabeth keeps reading.

_**"That," Annabeth said, "is claiming."**_

_**"What'd I do?" Leo backed toward the lake. Then he glanced up and yelped. "Is my hair on fire?"**_

Leo hair suddenly burst into flames. I try my best not to throw water on him.

_**He ducked, but the symbol followed him, bobbing and weaving so it looked like he was trying to write something in flames with his head.**_

Everyone bursts into laughter. Leo doesnt blush in the slightest.

_**"This can't be good," Butch muttered. "The curse—"**_

_**"Butch, shut up," Annabeth said. "Leo, you've just been claimed—"**_

_**"By a god," Jason interrupted. "That's the symbol of Vulcan, isn't it?"**_

"Vulcan?" Someone asks  
"Isn't that the Roman name for Hephaestus?" I ask. Everyone looks at me. "What? I can't know a fact or two without you being surprised?'  
"The real question is," Annabeth says startling me with her suddenly calculating expression,"How does Jason know that?" Beside her, Thalia gasps faintly. She seems to be remembering something. She catches me looking and mouths '_later'_.

_**All eyes turned to him.**_

_**"Jason," Annabeth said carefully, "how did you know that?"**_

_**"I'm not sure."**_

_**"Vulcan?" Leo demanded. "I don't even LIKE Star Trek .**_

"You dont change much do you?" Nico asks as the camp burst into another round of laughter.

_**What are you talking about?"**_

_**"Vulcan is the Roman name for Hephaestus," Annabeth said, "the god of blacksmiths and fire."**_

_**The fiery hammer faded, but Leo kept swatting the air like he was afraid it was following him. "The god of what? Who?"**_

_**Annabeth turned to the guy with the bow. "Will, would you take Leo, give him a tour? Introduce him to his bunk-mates in Cabin Nine."**_

_**"Sure, Annabeth."**_

_**"What's Cabin Nine?" Leo asked. "And I'm not a Vulcan!"**_

_**"Come on, Mr. Spock, I'll explain everything."**_

"Will? you watch Star Trek?" Will blushes in response.

_**Will put a hand on his shoulder and steered him off toward the cabins.**_

_**Annabeth turned her attention back to Jason. Usually Piper didn't like it when other girls checked out her boyfriend, **_

"Oh dont worry Annie already has someone to check out."

_**but Annabeth didn't seem to care that he was a good-looking guy.**__**She studied him more like he was a complicated blueprint. **_

_Thats my girl! _I think while a big smirk is plastered to my face.

_**Finally she said, "Hold out your arm."**_

_**Piper saw what she was looking at, and her eyes widened.**_

_**Jason had taken off his windbreaker after his dip in the lake, leaving his arms bare, and on the inside of his right forearm was a tattoo. How had Piper never noticed it before?**_

_**She'd looked at Jason's arms a million times. The tattoo couldn't have just appeared, but it was darkly etched, impossible to miss: a dozen straight lines like a bar code, and over that an eagle with the letters SPQR.**_

"Theres a tattoo place that gives under aged kids tattoo's?" Travis and Connor smirk at each other.

_**"I've never seen marks like this," Annabeth said. "Where did you get them?"**_

_**Jason shook his head. "I'm getting really tired of saying this, but I don't know."**_

"Why doesnt he know?"  
"He lost his memory." Leo opens his mouth to say more but quickly closes it.

_**The other campers pushed forward, trying to get a look at Jason's tattoo. The marks seemed to bother them a lot— almost like a declaration of war.**_

_**"They look burned into your skin," Annabeth noticed.**_

_**"They were," Jason said. Then he winced as if his head was aching. "I mean … I think so. I don't remember."**_

_**No one said anything. It was clear the campers saw Annabeth as the leader. They were waiting for her verdict.**_

Usaully they saw me as the leader. I guess now that Im missing it got passed down to Annabeth. Great now she has to deal with leading a camp, finding me :( , and designing amazing building for olympus. If she finds me in the future, she is going to kill me.

_**"He needs to go straight to Chiron," Annabeth decided. "Drew, would you—"**_

_**"Absolutely." Drew laced her arm through Jason's.**_

_**"This way, sweetie. I'll introduce you to our director. He's … an interesting guy." She flashed Piper a smug look and led Jason toward the big blue house on the hill.**_

_**The crowd began to disperse, until only Annabeth and Piper were left.**_

_**"Who's Chiron?" Piper asked. "Is Jason in some kind of trouble?"**_

_**Annabeth hesitated. "Good question, Piper. Come on, I'll give you a tour. We need to talk."**_

"That is all we have time for tonight." Chiron annonces. Everyone sighs. " We will begin reading again after lunch. until this book is finished all activities are cancelled except for capture the flag in 3 days. Now off to bed all of you, You only have twenty minutes before the Harpes come out."  
Everyone goes to thier cabin, talking about what thy think is gonna happen next. Before Annabeth can go to hers I stop her. "You seem upset. Do...do you want to come to my cabin to talk for a few minutes?" She nods. We get up and start walking towards my cabin.

* * *

Sorry for the Annabeth freak out. I felt like it had to be there. I will update tomarrow probly. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, I have no school! :) The next chapter will be basically a percabeth chapter. Then the chapter after that will continue with the reading.

Question of the chapter time!

What color is Paul's hair?


	7. Percabeth and 2nd new character

Nice job, XxThisMyFriendIsAPenxX  for being first to guess pauls hair color is... salt and pepper! (whatever that means)

* * *

When we get to my cabin, there's a few moments of awkword silence. I've never seen her look so defeated. Her arms hang loosely by her side. Her shoes must've become suddenly interesting, because she hasnt stopped looking at them. I cant stand to see her like this.  
"I know we both thought it was over," I begin. "but when has anything I ever thought turn out to be true." I gently grab her chin with my hand and turn her head towards me. "If I do dissaper, I know i'll try everything in my power to get back to camp. To get back to you."  
"But what if..." she trails off. I smile at the sight of her. Its like I can see the gears turning in her head. "Leo said Jason lost his memory right? and that a 'certian goddess' took you and replaced you with Jason?" I nod, but I have no idea where shes going with this. "What if you lose your memory too?"  
My heart stops. What if I cant even remember who anyone is? What Would happen if I find Annabeth but cant remember who she is? I can't let her go through that. I remember when she thought I was dead, after the mt. incident. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Then her voice cracked as she had to say her final thoughts about me. Im never going to let her go through that again.  
"No matter what, I am never going to forget you. I'll find you and when I do, I swear I am never gonna leave your side again." I let my hand drop from her face and I slowly intertwine my hand to hers.  
"Percy. You cant..." Her voice breaks. She looks like shes trying not to cry. To be strong. "...can't promise that. No matter how hard to try to remember me, Some goddess is going to erase your memory." A small tear slides down her cheek and crashes to the floor.  
I wrap my arms around her. Never wanting to let her go."Its all going to turn out right somehow," I whisper, sinking my head into her curled hair. "I know it will." I could have stayed like that forever, but reluctantly I pull away. "The Harpes are coming out soon. I'll walk you to your cabin." She smiles. Its seems like its her first smile in ages.  
The cool night air surrounds us as we slowly walk to the Athena cabin. "Goodnight." I whisper. Then I slowly kiss her soft lips. Every kiss we share makes me feel like me brain is turning to mush. Suddenly I don't worry about forgetting Annabeth. Nothing on this Earth (or Olympus) can ever make me forget her.  
When we pull away she walks into her cabin, her face is as red as a tomato. Mine probly isn't much better. As I turn towards my cabin, something stops me. A squeal. followed by a smacking sound. "Shut up Lacy! Hes getting suspicious!"  
Great. The Aphrodite cabin stalks us yet again.

That afternoon, the camp was unusaully bored. Maybe cancelling ALL the activities was a bad idea on Chiron's part. Now he has to deal with powerfully bored campers who want to read a book about my life. Wow, I never thought I'd ever say that.  
"Campers," Chiron gets everyones attention."After everyone is finished we will continue reading."  
I've never seen the camper finish thier food as fast as they did today.  
When everyone was settled, Will voulentered to read. As soon as he flipped to the right page in the book, A puff of pink, horrid smelling smoke appered. Doves fly around the smoke as it starts to dissaper, revealing a girl. Her hand clutch her face so she wont have to breathe in the eyes start to water from the overly strong, putrid smell of roses. In the distance I hear Leo laughing his head off "Nice entrance Piper!"

* * *

Sorry about the horrible Percabeth scene, I stink at writing those. Anyways, In this story every character will get a different entrance from there godly parent. Thats why piper came in a cloud of perfume surrounded by doves.  
Is anyone else freaked out by Hurricane Sandy? It keeps shaking my entire house...

Question of the chapter time!

Cabin number 4 belongs to which god/goddess 's Children?

btw another update is coming later on today!


	8. Mount St Helens and 3rd new character

The answer was.. Demeter! Nice job Hermes' Little Girl for being the first one to guess correctly.  
Sorry for not updating again yesterday. Hurricane Sandy took out my power :(

* * *

"Leo? Why are we here?" Piper asks still alittle dazed from the perfume. Annabeth explains everything to her, but I dont think she paid much attention. She was to busy staring at me and Annabeth with wide eyes.  
"You cant say anything important about the future or your time period will be destroyed. okay?" Piper nods but looks like shes ready to explode. Will was about to start reading when Thalia cuts in. "Can I read this chapter? I have a feeling Its going to be good." She smirks as she reads ahead. "I was right"

_I hope Piper liked her entrance! Anyways since Annabeth is probly out of her mind with worry after that last chapter, I decided to make this a Percabeth chapter! *Cue the appluase*. One word of advice to you both is never stop all else seems lost dont give up. In the future your lifes take a FALL for the worst. And I dont want my favorite couple to die so quickly!_

_~Aphrodite ;)_

"Well that was... interesting." I say. Im actually scared of what the goddess of love is planning on putting in this chapter. To my right I hear Leo whisper to Piper "Suttle. If she wants it to stay a secret she gonna have to chose better wording."

_Mount _

I quickly glance at Annabeth. She has the same expression I do. Pure terror.

_**After another half mile or so, we emerged in a cavern the size of a Super Bowl stadium. Our spider escort stopped and curled into a ball. We had arrived at the forge of Hephaestus.**_

"Wait." Grover says. "Is this after me and Tyson left to go find Pan?"  
"Yeah you guys pretty much left minutes before this." Annabeth says with a laugh. I dont know why she laughing. She gives me a look that make me hate that my thought can be read by everyone.

_**There was no floor, just bubbling lava hundreds of feet below. We stood on a rock ridge that circled the cavern. A network of metal bridges spanned across it. At the center was a huge platform with all sorts of machines, cauldrons, forges, and the largest anvil I'd ever seen—a block of iron the size of a house. Creatures moved around the platform—several strange, dark shapes, but they were too far away to make out details.**_

_**"We'll never be able to sneak up on them," I said.**_

_**Annabeth picked up the metal spider and slipped it into her pocket.**_

Annabeth shutters.

_**"I can. Wait here."**_

_**"Hold it!" I said, but before I could argue, she put on her Yankees cap and turned invisible.**_

_**I didn't dare call after her, but I didn't like the idea of her approaching the forge on her own. If those things out there could sense a god coming, would Annabeth be safe?**_

"I'll be fine, It's you Im worried about." Annabeth says sticking her tounge out.

_**I looked back at the Labyrinth tunnel. I missed Grover and Tyson already.**_

"I missed you too buddy." Grover says putting his arm around my shoulder.

_**Finally I decided I couldn't stay put. I crept along the outer rim of the lava lake, hoping I could get a better angle to see what was happening in the middle.**_

_**The heat was horrible. In no time I was drenched with sweat. My eyes stung from the smoke. I moved along, trying to keep away from the edge, until I found my way blocked by a cart on metal wheels, like the kind they sue in mine shafts. I lifted up the tarp and found it was half full of scrap metal. I was about to squeeze my way around it when I heard voices from up ahead, probably from a side tunnel.**_

_**"Bring it in?" one asked.**_

_**"Yeah," another said. "Movie's just about done."**_

"Movie? Who watches a movie in H-Mans Forges?" Nico asks with a horrible New York accsent.  
"Dude dont...just dont," I say. You would think he could do a great NewYork accsent concidering most campers *cough* me *cough* grew up there.

_**I panicked. I didn't have time to back up. There was nowhere to hide except … the cart.**_

"Great" Thalia says sarcasticly

_**I scrambled inside and pulled the tarp over me, hoping no one had seen me. I curled my fingers around Riptide, just in case I had to fight.**_

_**The cart lurched forward.**_

_**"Oi," a gruff voice said. "Thing weighs a ton."**_

"Thanks dude." I mutter as Nico laughs.

_**"It's celestial bronze," the other said. "What did you expect?"**_

_**I got pulled along. We turned a corner, and from the sound of the wheels echoing against the walls I guessed we had passed down a tunnel and into a smaller room. Hopefully I was not about to be dumped into a smelting pot. If they started to tip me over, I'd have to fight my way out quick. I heard lots of talking, chattering voices that didn't sound human—somewhere between a seal's bark and a dog's growl. **_

"Those are to very diferent animals."Nico says trying to figure out what it is.  
"Trust me," I say " Your never gonna guess it."

_**here were other sounds too—like an old-fashioned film projector and a tinny voice narrating.**_

_**"Just set it in the back," a new voice ordered from across the room. "Now, younglings, please attend to the film. There will be time for questions afterward."**_

_**The voices quieted down, and I could hear the film.**_

_**As a young sea demon matures, the narrator said, changes happen in the monster's body. You may notice your fangs getting longer and you may have a sudden desire to devour human beings. These changes are perfectly normal and happen to all young monsters.**_

"Ummm Is this what I think it is." Piper asks awkwordly. I just nod.

_**Excited snarling filled the room. The teacher—I guess it must have been a teacher—told the younglings to be quiet, and the film continued. I didn't understand most of it, and I didn't dare look. The film kept talking about growth spurts and acne problems caused by working in the forges, and proper flipper hygiene, and finally it was over.**_

'Eww monsters get acne?"

_**"Now, younglings," the instructor said, "what is the proper name of our kind?"**_

_**"Sea demons!" one of them barked.**_

_**"No. Anyone else?"**_

_**"Telekhines!" another monster growled.**_

_**"Very good," the instructor said. "And why are we here?"**_

_**"Revenge!" several shouted.'**_

_**"Yes, yes, but why?"**_

_**"Zeus is evil!" **_

Thunder booms. "hey Im only reading what here!" Thalia shouts at the sky again. To any mortal that might be pretty funny.

_**one monster said. "He cast us into Tartarus just because we used magic!"**_

_**"Indeed," the instructor said. "After we made so many of the gods' finest weapons. The trident of Poseidon, for one. And of course—we made the greatest weapon of the Titans!**_

_**Nevertheless, Zeus cast us away and relied on those fumbling Cyclopes. That is why we are taking over the forges of the usurper Hephaestus. And soon we will control the undersea furnaces, our ancestral home!"**_

_**I clutched my pen-sword. These snarling things had created Poseidon's trident? What were they talking about? I'd never even heard of a telekhine.**_

"Of course you haven't." Annabeth smirks.

_**"And so, younglings," the instructor continued, "Who do we serve?"**_

_**"Kronos!" they shouted.**_

"To bad Kronos is back in the pit of Tartarus!" Travis shouts. The whole camp cheers... except for Leo and Piper. Something about thier expressions makes me worried.

_**"And when you grow to be big telekhines, will you make weapons for the army?"**_

_**"Yes!"**_

_**"Excellent. **_

"Yeah. It's the best job ever." Thalia says sarcastically, of course.

_**Now, we've brought in some scraps for you to practice with. Let's see how ingenious you are."**_

_**There was a rush of movement and excited voices coming toward the cart.**_

_**I got ready to uncap Riptide. The tarp was thrown back. I jumped up, my bronze sword springing to life in my hands, and found myself facing a bunch of…dogs.**_

"Thats ...unexpected."

_**Well, their faces were dogs, anyway, with black snouts, brown eyes, and pointy ears. Their bodies were sleek and black like sea mammals, with stubby legs that were half flipper, half foot, and humanlike hands with sharp claws. If you blended together a kid, a Doberman pinscher, and a sea lion, you'd get something like what I was looking at.**_

"Weird!"

_**"A demigod!" one snarled.**_

_**"Eat it!" yelled another.**_

_**"**_Eat It!" Grover shouts, causing a few questioning glances.  
"Your a vegatarian man, you can't eat us even if you wanted to." Nico replies

_**But that's as far as they got before I slashed a wide arc with Riptide and vaporized the entire front row of monsters.**_

_**"Back off!" I yelled at the rest, trying to sound fierce. Behind them stood their instructor—a six-foot-tall telekhine with Doberman fangs snarling at me. I did my best to stare him down.**_

_**"New lesson, class," I announced. "Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!"**_

"Was Professer Percy alittle pissed off at his class?" Thalia asks, smirking.  
"You really thought that would work?" Nico say laughing

_**To my surprise, it worked. **_

Nico stopped laughing and blushed.

_**The monsters backed up, but there were at least twenty of them. My fear factor wasn't going to last long.**_

_**I jumped out of the cart, yelled, "CLASS DISMISSED!" and ran for the exit.**_

The camp laughs. "You should have just gave them detention. They wouldn't have followed you"

_**The monsters charged after me, barking and growling. I hoped they couldn't run very fast with those stubby little legs and flippers, but they waddled along pretty well. Thank the gods there was a door in the tunnel leading out to the main cavern. **_

_**I slammed it shut and turned the wheel handle to lock it, but I doubted it would keep them long.**_

_**I didn't know what to do. Annabeth was out here somewhere, invisible.**_

_**Our chance for a subtle reconnaissance mission had been blown. I ran toward the platform at the center of the lava lake.**_

_**"Annabeth!" I yelled.**_

"Nice. Very stealth."

_**"Shhh!" an invisible hand clamped over my mouth and wrestled me down behind a big bronze cauldron. "You want to get us killed?"**_

"Annabeth can wrestle you to the ground." Thalia smirks "Ah so much blackmail."

_**I found her head and took off her Yankees cap. She shimmered into existence in front of me, scowling, her face streaked with ash and grime.**_

_**"Percy, what is your problem?"**_

"There's alot of problems with Percy. Which one are you talking about?'

_**"We're going to have company!" I explained quickly about the monster orientation class. Her eyes widened.**_

_**"So that's what they are," she said. "Telekhines. I should've known. And they're making…**_

_**Well, look."**_

_**We peeked over the cauldron. In the center of the platform stood four sea demons, but these were fully grown, at least eight feet tall. Their black skin glistened in the firelight as they worked, sparks flying as they took turns hammering on a long piece of glowing hot metal.**_

_**"The blade is almost complete," one said. "It needs another cooling in blood to fuse the metals."**_

_**"Aye," a second said. "It shall be even sharper than before."**_

"Kronos's sycthe?"

_**"What is that?" I whispered.**_

_**Annabeth shook her head. "They keep talking about fusing metals. I wonder—"**_

_**"They were talking about the greatest Titan weapon," I said. "And they…they said they made my father's trident."**_

_**"The telekhines betrayed the gods," Annabeth said. "They were practicing dark magic. I don't know what, exactly, but Zeus banished them to Tartarus."**_

_**"With Kronos."**_

_**She nodded. "We have to get out—"**_

_**No sooner had she said that than the door to the classroom exploded and young telekhines came pouring out. They stumbled over each other, trying to figure out which way to charge.**_

_**"Put your cap back on," I said. "Get out!"'**_

_Great. _I think._ Let the embarressing moment start. I really wish no one could read my thoughts._

_**"What?" Annabeth shrieked. "No! I'm not leaving you."**_

"Annie would never leave you." Annabeth and I dont say a word but we both blush bright red. "Whats wrong with you two?"

_**"I've got a plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider—maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on."**_

_**"But you'll be killed!"**_

_**"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got no choice."**_

_**Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me. **_

"Why do you always want to punch him when your mad?"  
"It's a reflex"

_**And then she did something that surprised me even more. **_

"What did she do kiss you." Nico teases. The camp laughs.

_**She kissed me.**_

Thalia's eyes go wide as she reads this. Theres a strange moment of silence, I didn't expect. Then it's pretty much chaos. Aphrodite kids squeal in joy saying " I knew it!" over and over. Leo and Piper look like there trying not to laugh but are wolf-whistle and Nico and Thalia's teases are lost in all the noise. Thank the gods. Chiron tries to calm everyone down but it doesn't help that he's laughing as well. So much for our mature mentor. Thalia shouts to be herd over the crowd.

_**"Be careful, Seaweed Brain." She put on her hat and vanished.**_

_**I probably would've sat there for the rest of the day, staring at the lava and trying to remember what my name was, **_

"Didn't know I had that affect on you seaweed brain." Annabeth smirks while everyone else cracks up laughing.

_**but the sea demons jarred me back to reality.**_

_**"There!" one yelled. The entire class of telekhines charged across the bridge toward me. I ran for the middle of the platform, surprising the four elder sea demons so much they dropped the red-hot blade. It was about six feet long and curved like a crescent moon. I'd seen a lot of terrifying things, but this unfinished whatever-it-was scared me worse.**_

_**The elder demons got over their surprise quickly. There were four ramps leading off the platform, and before I could dash in any direction, each of them had covered an exit.**_

_**The tallest one snarled. "What do we have here? A son of Poseidon?"**_

_**"Yes," another growled. "I can smell the sea in his blood."**_

"What would that smell like? Salty Blood?"  
"Yeah Nico Percy smells like salty blood."

_**I raised Riptide. My heart was pounding.**_

_**"Strike down one of us, demigod," the third demon said, "and the rest of us shall tear you to shreds. Your father betrayed us. He took our gift and said nothing as we were cast into the pit. We will see him sliced to pieces. He and all the other Olympians."**_

_**I wished I had a plan. I wished I hadn't been lying to Annabeth. I'd wanted her to get out safely, and I hoped she'd been sensible enough to do it.**_

"If that wasn't sweet, I would punch you again."

_**But now it was dawning on me that this might be the place I would die. No prophecies for me. I would get overrun in the heart of a volcano by a pack of dog-faced sea-lion people. The young telekhines were at the platform now, too, snarling and waiting to see how their four elders would deal with me.**_

_**I felt something burning against the side of my leg. The ice whistle in my pocket was getting colder. If I ever needed help, now was the time. But I hesitated. I didn't trust Quintus's gift. Before I could make up my mind, the tallest telekhine said, "Let us see how strong he is. Let us see how long it takes him to burn!"**_

"How does that test strongness." Annabeth asks horrified that she left me there alone.  
"I dont know but Im sronger then all of you then." Leo grins while piper smacks the back of his head.  
"Not the time Leo."  
"It's always time for a joke. It make the world happier." He says with a blazing smile. Literally his smile was surrounded by fire.

_**He scooped some lava out of the nearest furnace. It set his fingers ablaze, but this didn't seem to bother him at all. The other elder telekhines did the same. The first one threw a glop of molten rock at me and set my pants on fire.**_

The camp is silent. Annabeth foot taps nervously.

_**Two more splattered across my chest. I dropped my sword in sheer terror and swatted at my clothes. Fire was engulfing me. Strangely, it felt only warm at first, but it was getting hotter by the instant.**_

_**"Your father's nature protects you," one said. "Makes you hard to burn. But not impossible, youngling. Not impossible."**_

_**"**_Thanks dad" I whisper. then a fresh sea breeze blows through the pavillion.

_**They threw more lava at me, and I remember screaming. My whole body was on fire. The pain was worse than anything I'd ever felt. I was being consumed.**_

"How are you alive!" Connor bellows, in a voice that reminds me of Frankenstien.

_**I crumpled to the metal floor and heard the sea demon children howling in delight.**_

_**Then I remembered the voice of the river naiad at the ranch: The water is within me.**_

"When were you at a ranch?" Thalia asks incrediously trying to break the silence.  
_**I needed the sea. I felt a tugging sensation in my gut, but I had nothing around to help me. Not a faucet or a river. Not even a petrified seashell this time. And besides, the last time I'd unleashed my power at the stables, there'd been that scary moment when it had almost gotten away from me.**_

_**I had no choice. I called to the sea. I reached inside myself and remembered the waves and the currents, the endless power of the ocean.**_

_**And I let it loose in one horrible scream.**_

I shutter. That was one of the most painfull things I've ever done, besides the dip in the Styx.

Annabeth squeezes my hand so tight, I can barely feel it.

_**Afterward, I could never describe what happened. An explosion, a tidal wave, a whirlwind of power simultaneously catching me up and blasting me downward into the lava. Fire and water collided, superheated steam, and I shot upward from the heart of the volcano in a huge explosion, just one piece of flotsam thrown free by a million pounds of pressure. **_

Silence. "Your the one who made Mount St. Helens erupt?!" Piper practically screams.  
"It was an accident." I say shrugging.

_**The last thing I remember before losing conscious was flying, flying so high Zeus would never have forgiven me, **_

_**and then beginning to fall, smoke and fire and water streaming from me. I was a comet hurtling toward the earth.**_

"Thats it." Thalia says glaring. "You had to leave it on a cliff hanger?"  
"Don't blame me . Blame Aphrodite."  
As soon as I say that, The ground breaks in half. A giant crevace forms in the center of camp. Campers scurry away as it gets larger.  
"Stop pissing off gods!" Thalia shrieks as the ground shakes violently.  
Suddenly its stops.  
Only the deep breathing of the campers is heard. "What the Hades was-" with a thundering lurch, somebody shoots out of the ground and lands with a thud near the hearth.

* * *

You can probly guess who the person is all ready :)

Question of the chapter time!

What plant did Caylpso give Percy before he left?


	9. Junk Yard of the Gods

Sorry for the delay! Anyways, nice job Sunleaves17 being the first to say Moonlace is the name of the plant Calypso give Percy. I apologize in advance for spelling/punctuation/ grammar errors!

* * *

Lying on the ground was a girl with coffee colored skin and jet black curly hair. Unlike the others demigods that appeared out of nowhere, she was very freaked out. She shot to her feet and looked in every direction, trying to comprehend everything at once. Her eyes scanned every direction. Her eyes abrubtly stopped on me. Her eyes were a bright gold color that reminded me of celestse bronze. Before I could say something along the lines of 'hi', She tackled me!  
"Hazel!" Piper yelled while Leo was laughing his head off.  
As I fell to the ground I realized it wasnt so much a tackle, but an overly excited bear hug. As thin as this girl was, she sure had a strong grip. Just before my lungs would collaspsed from lack of oxygen, Leo and Piper each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her off me. I Gasp and wheeze for breath. I havent been this winded since Tyson last hugged me. Everyone just looks wondering who the Hades this girl was. "Umm," I say. "Who are you?"  
For a brief moment she looked hurt, like I was some long lost friend or something. Before she could say anything, Piper explained everything to her.  
"oohhh... umm sorry for the hug?" She said more like a question then an apology. She claims she understands everything but she looks confused, like everything around her is so... so foriegn. If shes a demigod, she should already know about Camp Halfblood. "NIco?" she asks suddenly.  
"Hey sis." He replies.  
"Woah. What?" I ask  
"Shes my sister Hazel. I just found her a few weeks ago in... Louisiana." I can tell he's hiding something , but I let it go for now.

"How about we start reading," Chiron states looking at everyones confused faces. "Im sure it will explain everything about Hazel. Annabeth would you like to read?" She nods looking at Hazel questioningly.

_Sacrifice. You seem to sacrifice alot Jackson. You would sacrifice yourself if it ment your friends would survive. Somehow your alive to tell each tale, when others would have perished. You've witnessed what happens when someone tries to fill your shoes. Your fatal flaw will ultimitly destroy you, if you do not allow some one else to sacrifice themself for you. It will be hard to forget but something is coming your way that you wont be prepared for. When someone dies you have to live without them, learn to live a life that doesn't involve that person.  
On a completely unrelated note, I didnt want to put the first part of this chapter in but a.. ahem... certain goddess forced me to.  
~ Hades_

Beside me, Nico was as stiff as a board. I have a feeling Hades ment something more to his advice. Hazel sighed and looked at her feet.

**Junk Yard of the Gods**

I glance at Thalia. From one look I can tell she doesnt want this to be about... No it cant be. Not even Hades could be that cruel.

_**We rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as my back end could take. **_

"Umm... I'm not even gonna ask." Nico sighed.

_**I have no idea how many miles we covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat, dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until we were galloping (do boars gallop?) across the desert.**_

_**As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.**_

_"__**This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."**_

"Why were you even on a boar in the first place?..." Leo asks

"Long story," Thalia sighed putting her head in her hands. The way shes acting proves this story is about not going to be the least bit funny. Unless Hades put in the part where I meet... Oh Gods this isnt gonna be fun.

_**Nobody needed convincing. We slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping up cacti. Then we waddled away as best we could with our saddle sores.**_

_**After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.**_

_"__**It likes the mountains better," I guessed.**_

_"__**I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."**_

_**Ahead of us was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoe Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. **_

"When did this happen?" Annabeth asks slightly confused.  
"This is the quest after you got kidnapped by Lu- I mean... umm Dr. Thorn." Thalia says, quickly recovering from her slip of the tounge, that everyone noticed.  
"Oh" Annabeth says in a small voice. She continues reading like it never happened.

_"__**Whoa," I said.**_

_"__**Something tells me we're not going to find a rental car here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you go another wild boar up your sleeve?"**_

_**Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that made no sense to me, but Grover looked concerned.**_

_"__**That's us," he said. "Those five nuts right there."**_

_"__**Which one is me?" I asked.**_

_"__**The little deformed one," Zoe suggested.**_

Nico along with the rest of the camp laughs. "You lead yourself right into that one, Fish face." Nico smirks in between bursts of laughter.  
"Oh, shut up." I retort.

_"__**Oh, shut up."**_

"see! Annabeth agrees with me." I exclaim  
"Um, actually I just read that from the book..." She smirks

_"__**That cluster right there," Grover said, pointing to the left, "that's trouble."**_

_"__**A monster?" Thalia asked.**_

_**Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything which doesn't make sense. But the acorns don't lie. Our next challenge …"**_

"The acorns dont lie... Anyone else think thats a strange sentence? Even by demigod standards." Hazel asks incredibly confused.

_**He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.**_

_**We decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of us wanted to go Dumpster-driving in the dark.**_

_**Zoe and Bianca produced five sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. I don't know how they did it, because the packs were tiny, but must've been enchanted to hold so much stuff.**_

"I know! Its amazingly cool. I dont even know how they fit everything inside." Thalia says

_**I'd noticed their bows and quivers were also magic. I never really thought about it, but when the Hunters needed them they just appeared slung over their backs. And when they didn't, they were gone.**_

_**The night got chilly fast, so Grover and I collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with an electric shock to start a campfire. Pretty soon we were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.**_

_"__**The stars are out," Zoe said.**_

_**She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.**_

_"__**Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."**_

_"__**This is nothing," Zoe said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution.**_

_"__**You talk like you're not human," I said.**_

_**Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"**_

_**Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan was here, he would set thing right."**_

_**Zoe nodded sadly.**_

_"__**Maybe it was the coffee," Grover said. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee …"**_

_**"**_Wow. why didnt you guys tell me I sounded like a crazy person!?"

_"__**He sent us help," Grover insisted. "I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."**_

_"__**What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."**_

"Now that we know she a daughter of Hades, it all makes more sence now." I say feeling myself slipping into my thoughts, trying to figure out how I didnt see it earlier.

_**Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."**_

_"__**Maybe there's something special about your knife," I said.**_

_"__**It is the same as mine," Zoe said. "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."**_

_"__**Maybe you hit the skeleton in a certain spot," I said.**_

_**Bianca looked uncomfortable with everybody paying attention to her.**_

"She always hated drawing attention to her self." Nico say barely above a whisper. In the dim light of the fire, Nico face was emotionless. I had to remind myself that he was still only a little kid. Nico acted like an adult with his emotions. He was more mature somehow, from when I first met him.

_"__**Never mind," Zoe told her. "We will fin the answer. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitch hike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."**_

_**I was about to protest that Grover and I had bad experiences in that town but Bianca beat us to it.**_

_"__**No!" she said. "Not there!"**_

_**She looked really freaked out, like she'd just been dropped off the steep end of a roller coaster. **_

_**Zoe frowned. "Why?"**_

_**Bianca took a shaky breath. "I … I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember …"**_

_**Suddenly I had a really bad thought. I remembered what Bianca had told me about Nico and her staying in a hotel for a while. I met Grover's eyes, and I got the feeling he was thinking the same thing.**_

_"__**Bianca," I said. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"**_

"As insane as that place was, it was pretty cool, concidering it traps you in there forever with a very slim chance for escape." Grover says while he nervously watches a bug scurry across the ground. Which is a stretch even for Grover.

_**Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"**_

_"__**Oh, great," I said.**_

_"__**Wait," Thalia said. "What is the Lotus Casino?"**_

_"__**A couple of years ago," I said, "Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."**_

_"__**No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."**_

_"__**You said somebody came and got you out," I remembered.**_

" to the rescue." Nico grumbles. For a strange second I pictured dressed as Batman soaring through the sky and attacking the innocent. I can help but think Im going crazy sometimes.

_"__**Yes."**_

_"__**What did he look like? What did he say?"**_

_"__**I … I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."**_

_"__**Bianca," Zoe said, "Can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"**_

"Obama rules all!" Travis shouts.  
"Mitt Romney all the way bro!" Connor shouts back.  
"For once I agree with Travis." Katie joins winks in her direction. "Umm Nevermind... Romney!"  
"Wish I could vote." Says some random person in the back.  
"Even if you could vote it wouldnt have made a difference. It only matters how many electoral votes a canidate aquires."  
"But what if-" Grover starts  
"Shut up!" Clarrise shouts. "Whats even going on?!"  
Everyone is silent before everyones cracking up laughing at Clarrises outburst. When everything is calmer, Annabeth keeps reading.

_"__**Don't be silly," Bianca said. She told us the correct name of the president.**_

"Republican or Demacrat, Clarrise?" Leo smirks.  
"Im allergic to politics." Clarrise replies simply.

_"__**And who was the president before that?" Zoe asked.**_

_**Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."**_

_**Zoe swallowed. "Theodore or Franklin?"**_

_"__**Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."**_

"How long were you in there?" Malcom asks horrified.

_"__**Bianca," Zoe said. "F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."**_

_"__**That's impossible," Bianca said. "I … I'm not that old."**_

_**She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.**_

_**Thalia's eyes turned sad. I guess she knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca. The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out."**_

_**The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. I was hoping it was Apollo, come to give us a chariot ride again, but the engine was way too silent for the sun chariot, and besides, it was nighttime. **_

Thalia snorts. "Why would apollo be driving his chariot in the middle of the night?"

_**We grabbed our sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of us.**_

_**The back door of the limo opened right next to me. Before I could step away, the point of a sword touched my throat.**_

_**I heard the sound of Zoe and Bianca drawing their bows. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, I moved back very slowly. I had to, because he was pushing the point under my chin.**_

_**He smiled cruelly. "Not so fast now, are you punk?" **_

_**He was a big man with a crew cut a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes, but I knew what was behind those glasses-hollow sockets filled with flames.**_

_"__**Ares," I growled.**_

Cheers erupted from the Ares table, while everyone else groaned.

_**The war god glanced at my friends. "At ease, people." **_

_**He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground.**_

_"__**This is a friendly meeting." He dug the point of his blade a little farther under my chin. "Of course I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."**_

_"__**What lady?" Thalia asked.**_

_"__**Oh I don't she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoe and Bianca.**_

"I've always wanted to know what happened while you were there" Thalia smirks

_"__**Get inside, punk," he said. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."**_

_**When I saw her, my jaw dropped.**_

_**I forgot my name. I forgot where I was. I forgot how to speak in complete sentences.**_

I could feel my face turning bright red. Annabeth read this, a little confused. Then she seemed to understand who was In the car.

_**She was wearing a red satin dress and her hair was curled in a cascade of ringlets. Her face was the most beautiful I'd ever seen: perfect makeup, dazzling eyes, a smile that would've lit up the dark side of the moon.**_

"Mama!" An aphrodite girl squealed. Thalia and Nico were laughing there heads off at my embaressment. At least they didnt have enough breath to joke around.

_**Thinking back on it, I can't tell you who she looked like. Or even what color her hair or her eyes were. Pick the most beautiful actress you can think of. The goddess was ten times more beautiful than that. Pick your favorite hair, eye color, whatever. The goddess had that. **_

Some guys were smiling dreamly. The hunters snorted in disgust.

_**When she smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like Annabeth. Then like this television actress I used to have a crush on in fifth grade. Then … well, you get the idea.**_

Annabeth voice was full of amusement even though her face was bright red.

_"__**Ah, there you are, Percy," the goddess said. "I am Aphrodite."**_

_**I slipped into the seat across from her and said something like, "Um uh gah."**_

_**She smiled. "Aren't you sweet. Hold this, please."**_

_**She handed me a polished mirror the size of a dinner plate and had me hold it up for her. She leaned forward and dabbed at her lipstick, though I couldn't see anything wrong with it.**_

_"__**Do you know why you're here?" she asked.**_

_**I wanted to respond. Why couldn't I form a complete sentence? She was only a lady. A seriously beautiful lady. With eyes like pools of spring water … Whoa. **_

_**"**_Why do you compare everything to water?"

_**I pinched my own arm, hard.**_

_"__**I … I don't know," I managed.**_

_"__**Oh, dear," Aphrodite said. "Still in denial?"**_

_**Outside the car, I could hear Ares chuckling. I had a feeling he could hear every word we said. The idea of him being out there made me angry, and that helped clear my mind.**_

_"__**I don't know what you're talking about," I said. **_

"Clueless as usual."

_"__**Well then why are you on this quest?"**_

_"__**Artemis has been captured!"**_

_**Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about a hopeless case. I mean, if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dears who have to imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!"**_

The hunters growled. I have a feeling they're gonna hate this chapter.

_"__**But she was chasing a monster," I protested. "A really, really bad monster. We have to find it!"**_

"We have to find a dam monster?" Thalia say innocently. Grover and I crack up laughing. Everyone around us just looks confused.  
"Its a dam inside joke" Im barely able to say. Still trying to catch my breath, I look over at Leo, Piper, and Hazel. Leo grinning like a mad man,"I cant belive shes Jason's s-" He gets out before, Piper punches him sending a glare his way.

_**Aphrodite made me hold the mirror a little higher. She seemed to have found a microscopic problem at the corner of her eye and dabbed at her mascara. "Always some monster. But my dear Percy, that is why the others are on this quest. I'm more interested in you."**_

_**My heart pounded. I didn't want to answer, but her eyes drew an answer right out of my mouth. "Annabeth is in trouble."**_

_**Aphrodite beamed. "Exactly!"**_

_"__**I have to help her," I said. "I've been having these dreams."**_

_"__**Ah, you even dream about her! That's so cute!"**_

I look at Nico and Thalia in shock. "No comments at all?"  
"This is hilarious enough, but if you want us to-"  
"No! Im okay with out it."

_"__**No! I mean … that's not what I meant."**_

_**She made a tsk-tsk sound. "Percy, I'm on your side. I'm the reason you're here after all."**_

_**I stared at her. "What?"**_

_"__**The poisoned T-shirt the Stoll brothers gave Phoebe," she said. "Did you think that was an accident? Sending Blackjack to find you? Helping you sneak out of the camp?**_

"Wow I missed alot." Annabeth says, trying to not blush anymore then she already is.

_"__**You did that?"**_

_"__**Of course! Because really, how boring these Hunters are! A quest for some monster, blah blah blah. Save Artemis. Let her stay lost, I say. But a quest for true love-"**_

_"__**Wait a second, I never said-"**_

_"__**Oh, my dear. You don't need to say it. You do know Annabeth was close to joining the Hunters, don't you?"**_

Hazel and a few others gasps. Annabeth continues reading quickly, so no one has a chance to ask.

_**I blushed. "I wasn't sure-"**_

_"__**She was about to throw her life away! And you, my dear, you can save her from that. It's so romantic!"**_

_"__**Now listen, Percy," Aphrodite said. "The Hunters are your enemies. Forget them and Artemis and the monster. That's not important. You just concentrate on finding and saving Annabeth."**_

Thalia's eyes went wide ."She did not just say that!"

_"__**Do you know where she is?"**_

_**Aphrodite waved her hand irritably. "No, no. I leave the details to you. But it's been ages since we've had a good tragic love story."**_

_"__**Whoa, first of all, I never said anything about love. And second, what's up with tragic?"**_

_"__**Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. "Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"**_

_"__**Didn't they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?"**_

_"__**Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart."**_

_"__**But … I don't know where it's going. My heart, I mean."**_

_**She smiled sympathetically. She was beautiful. And not just because she had a pretty face or anything. She believed in love so much, it was impossible not to feel giddy when she talked about it.**_

_"__**Not knowing is half the fun," Aphrodite said. "Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry."**_

_"__**No, no," I said. "Don't do that."**_

_"__**And don't worry," she said. "I'm not going to let this be easy and boring for you. No, I have some wonderful surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you just wait."**_

" I really hope she gonna stop with that now..." I mutter

_"__**That's really okay," I told her. "Don't go to any trouble."**_

Thalia snorts "Thats not gonna convince her,"

_"__**You're so cute. I wish all my daughters could break the heart of a boy as nice as you." Aphrodite's eyes were tearing up. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory, Percy. Don't take anything. He is awfully fussy about his trinkets and trash."**_

_"__**What?" I asked. "You mean Hephaestus?"**_

_**But the car door opened and Ares grabbed my shoulder, pulling me out of the car and back into the desert night. **_

_**My audience with the goddess of love was over.**_

_"__**You're lucky, punk." Ares pushed me away from the limo. "Be grateful." **_

_"__**For what?"**_

_"__**That we're being so nice. If it was up to me-"**_

_"__**So why haven't you killed me?" I shot back. It was a stupid thing to say to the god of war, but being around him always made me angry and reckless.**_

To my left I hear Hazel say to Piper and Leo "No wonder Mars hates him..."

_**Ares nodded, like I'd finally said something intelligent.**_

_"__**I'd love to kill you, seriously," he said. "But see, I got a situation. Word on Olympus is that you might start the biggest war in history. I can't risk messing that up. Besides, Aphrodite thinks you're some kinda soap-opera star or something. I kill you, that makes me look bad with her."**_

_**I balled my fists. "Why wait? I beat you once. How's that ankle healing up?"**_

"You beat Ares!" Piper said wide eyed. A few other campers look at me asthonished.

_**He grinned crookedly. "Not bad, punk. But you got nothing on the master of taunts. I'll start the fight when I'm good and ready. Until then … Get lost."**_

_**He snapped his fingers and the world did a three-sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust. I fell to the ground. **_

_**When I stood up again, the limousine was gone. My friends and I were standing in the middle of the junkyard, mountains of scrap metal stretched out in every direction.**_

_"__**What did she want with you? Bianca asked, once I'd told them about Aphrodite.**_

_"__**Oh, uh, not sure," I lied. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up."**_

_**Zoe narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."**_

_"__**For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."**_

_"__**How do we get out of here?"**_

_"__**That way," Zoe said. "That is west."**_

_"__**How can you tell?"**_

_"__**Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "Which means that must be west."**_

_**She pointed west, then at the northern constellation, which was hard to make out because there were so many other stars.**_

_"__**Oh, yeah," I said. "The bear thing."**_

_**Zoe looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a bear. A worthy opponent."**_

_"__**You act like it was real."**_

"It was, fish for brains."

_"__**Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"**_

_**We'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.**_

_"__**Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff … some of it looks like real gold."**_

_"__**It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."**_

_**"**_Wow. The gods get a huge junk yard filled with things they dont need, yet we cant take any of it... That sucks."

_"__**Look!" Bianca said. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!"**_

_**She yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shaped like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percy's sword!" **_

_**Zoe's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."**_

_"__**But-"**_

_"__**It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."**_

_**Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.**_

_"__**I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear.**_

_"__**You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" I asked.**_

_**She gave me a hard look. "Zoe is right, Percy. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now come on, let's get across the yard."**_

_"__**That's the second time you've agreed with Zoe," I muttered, but Thalia ignored me.**_

"Why do you have to point everything out?"

_**We started picking our way through the hills and valleys of junk. The stuff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for Ursa Major, we would've gotten lost. All the hills pretty much looked the same.**_

_**I'd like to say we left the stuff alone, but there was too much cool junk not to check out some of it. I found an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre that was so sweet I had to pick it up.**_

_**Finally, we saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of us, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. But between us and the road …**_

_"__**What is that?" Bianca gasped.**_

_**Ahead of us was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together. **_

_**Bianca frowned. "They look like-"**_

_"__**Toes," Grover said.**_

"Toes?" Nico said stunned. "I figured it was something more... exciting"

_**Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes."**_

_**Zoe and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.**_

_"__**Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."**_

_"__**But the road is right over there," I protested. "Quicker to climb over."**_

_"__**Come on." Thalia looked at me. "Around."**_

_**I didn't argue. The toes were starting to freak me out, too. I mean, who sculpts ten-foot-tall metal toes and sticks them in a junkyard?**_

"Oh Gods,"Annabeth interupts herself."Dont tell me its a Aut-"  
"It is. Just don't give it away,Annie"

_**After several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.**_

_"__**We made it out," Zoe said. "Thank the gods."**_

_**But apparently the gods didn't want to be thanked. At that moment, I heard a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal**_

_**I whirled around. Behind us, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. The ten toes tilted over, and I realized why they looked like toes. They were toes. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armor. He was impossibly tall-a skyscraper with legs and arms.**_

_**He looked down at us, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armored chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME.**_

_"__**Talos!" Zoe gasped.**_

_"__**Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?"**_

_**She stared accusingly at me.**_

"Why am I always acused of things? First the Lightning Bolt, Then Grover enchilada, Now this. Whats next?"

_**I shook my head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."**_

_**Bianca didn't say anything. I could swear she looked guilty, but I didn't have much time to think about it, because the giant defective Talos took one step toward us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.**_

_"__**Run!" Grover yelped. **_

_**Great advice, except that it was hopeless. **_

_**We split up, the way we'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path.**_

_**Zoe's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. **_

_**Bianca and I ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.**_

_Here it comes..._ I think knowing whats about to happen.

_"__**You took something," I said. "That bow."**_

_"__**No!" she said, but her voice was quivering.**_

_"__**Give it back! I said. "Throw it down!"**_

_"__**I … I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late."**_

"Then... what did she take?" Nico asks in a voice barely a whisper.

_"__**Move!" I tore down the hill, Bianca right behind me, as he giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.**_

_"__**Come on!" I told Bianca. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god. "It … it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."**_

Nicos eyes widen. "I... it was.. the statue?"

_"__**How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" I said.**_

I could see Thalia wanted to say something about his Mythomagic, but thought against it. Insted she put her hand on Nicos shoulder reasuringly.

_**There were tears in her eyes.**_

_"__**Throw it down," I said. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone."**_

_**She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened. **_

_**The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then I couldn't see him anymore.**_

_"__**No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again. **_

_**He raised his foot to stomp and I saw that his sole was treaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which I deciphered only after the foot came down: FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY.**_

_**"**_How do you just happen to find every monsters weakness within five seconds of a fight."

_"__**Crazy-idea time," I said.**_

_**Bianca looked at me nervously. "Anything."**_

_**I told her about the maintenance hatch. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."**_

_"__**How? You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed."**_

_"__**Distract it," I said. "I'll just have to time it right."**_

_**Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go."**_

_"__**You can't. You're new at this! You'll die."**_

_"__**It's my fault the monster came after us," she said. It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him … tell him I'm sorry."**_

Nico stared at the ground taking in every detail of his sisters death. I couldn't help but feel responsible. She wouldn't have known how to even begin to fight this monster, if I didn't tell her everything. I could feel burning tears start to blur my vision, but I wouldn't let them fall. My fists clench my seat until my knuckles turn white.

_"__**Bianca, no!"**_

_**But she wasn't waiting for me. She charged at the monster's left foot.**_

_**Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.**_

_**Zoe yelled, "What are you doing?"**_

_"__**Get it to raise its foot!" she said.**_

_"__**Hey, Junk Boy!" I yelled. "Down here."**_

_**I ran up its big toe and stabbed it with Riptide. The magic blad cut a gash in the bronze.**_

_**Unfortunately, my plan worked. **_

Thalia groans."Why do all your insane plans work?"

_**Talos looked down at me and raised his foot to squash me like a bug. I didn't see what Bianca was doing. I had to turn and run. The foot came down about two inches behind me and I was knocked into the air.**_

_**The monster was about to finish me off, but Grover somehow dug himself out of the junk pile. He played his pipes frantically, and his music sent another power line pole whacking against Talos's thigh. The monster turned. Grover should've run, but he must've bee too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. He took two steps, fell, and didn't get back up.**_

_"__**Grover!" Thalia and I both ran toward him, but I knew we'd be too late.**_

_**The monster raised his sword to smash Grover. Then he froze.**_

_**Talos cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing the Funky Chicken. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.**_

Camper couldn't help but smile at my description.

_"__**Go Bianca!" I yelled.**_

_**Zoe looked horrified. "She is inside?"**_

_**The monster staggered around, and I realized we were still in danger. Thalia and I grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway. Zoe was already ahead of us. She yelled, "How will Bianca get out?"**_

_**The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines. **_

_"__**Look out!" I yelled, but it was too late. **_

_**The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. I hoped the inside was insulated. I had no idea what was going on in there. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and is right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible CLANG!**_

Nico flinched. Hazel walked over to him and put an arm around him. Nico relaxed slightly. At least Nico has another sister to care for him.

_**The giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed. When we reached the wreckage we searched frantically, yelling Bianca's name. We crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. We searched until the sun started to rise, but no luck.**_

_**Zoe sat down and wept. I was stunned to see her cry.**_

_**Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's smashed face.**_

"I stabbed it in the nose..." She said randomly in a hallow voice.

_"__**We can keep searching," I said. "It's light now. We'll find her."**_

_"__**No we won't," Grover said miserably. "It happened just as it was supposed to."**_

_"__**What are you talking about?" I demanded.**_

_**He looked up at me with big watery eyes. "The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain."**_

_"__**Why hadn't I seen it? Why had I let her go instead of me?"**_

_**Here we were in the desert. And Bianca di Angelo was gone.**_

Silence filled the Pavillion as everyone grived for Bianca. Even the newcomers mourned her death.  
"Who wants to read next?" Chiron says with a sad, heartbroken voice.  
"I'll do it" I say.

* * *

Thats it for the longest chapter so far! Hope you liked it. Please read and review! :)

Question of the Chapter Time!

How old is Nico in the Mark of Athena?


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